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Wanted: A few good mayoral candidates

The filing period to replace Rep. Ken Lancaster as mayor of Soldotna begins today, and will remain open until Jan. 26. Lancaster was elected to the state Legislature in November.

The date of the special election has been set for Feb. 27. The election results will be certified at the city council meeting on March 14, and the new mayor will then be sworn in, barring the need for a runoff election. A runoff election between the top two vote-getters will be called for if no one candidate receives more than 40 percent of the votes cast. It must be held within three weeks of March 14.

At Wednesday night's Soldotna City Council meeting, council member Steve Horn asked City Clerk Pat Burdick if the city could do away with the runoff election (to allow the candidate with the most votes to be declared the winner), but she said there was no time to make such a change in city code.

Any one-year resident of Soldotna who is registered to vote may toss a hat into the ring. The one polling place for the election will be Soldotna City Hall. Soldotna's new mayor will serve until Oct. 1, 2002, the date Lancaster's term would have ended.